A small collection of Old Master paintings comes under the hammer in Blois on 22 November. Two works dominate the sale: Alessandro Allori’s Portrait of Bianca Cappello, estimated at €200,000–300,000, and Jan van Kessel I and Adriaen van Stalbemt’s Allegory of the Five Senses, estimated at €400,000–600,000. Both estimates are ambitious. In the case of the Van Kessel in particular, the market still has something to prove.
The largest and most spectacular painting in the sale is also the most expensive. Allegory of the Five Senses by Jan van Kessel I and Adriaen van Stalbemt carries an estimate of €400,000–600,000 in Blois. Alongside it is Alessandro Allori’s Portrait of Bianca Cappello, estimated at €200,000–300,000.
Together, they effectively anchor Treasures of the Loire Valley: Private Collection of Mr X, a small-scale sale at VALOIR Pousse-Cornet. Our first reaction concerned the Van Kessel in particular: is half a million euros not rather a lot for this painting? The Allori also seemed ambitiously priced at first, but its estimate is not difficult to justify. The Van Kessel and Stalbemt is a different matter.[1]
A Room in Which Everything Demands Attention
Van Kessel’s Allegory of the Five Senses is not a painting that can be taken in at a glance. On the left stands a richly decorated harpsichord. Five women are gathered around a table in the centre of the room. One smells flowers, another makes music. To the right are dishes, glassware, fish, fruit, game and birds. Paintings hang within the painting itself, while a landscape opens up through the tall arch at the centre.
The panel measures 74 by 107 centimetres and is conceived as a small encyclopaedia of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It fits perfectly within the world of Jan van Kessel I (1626–1679). Through the Brueghel family, he belonged to an Antwerp tradition in which luxury objects, natural-history curiosities and allegory were brought together.
Van Kessel turned this into a speciality of his own. Flowers, insects, animals, shells and luxury objects are not merely decoration; together, they construct a visible world. That talent is easy to recognise in the Blois panel. Yet the individual details are more convincing than the composition as a whole. The eye jumps from harpsichord to flowers, from female figure to painting, from fruit to deer and back again. The central group of figures only partly manages to hold that abundance together.
The Harpsichord Is a Remarkable Detail
The most intriguing object stands at the far left. According to the catalogue, the double-manual harpsichord bears the inscription Andreas Ruckers me fecit Antwerpia 1619. The Ruckers name matters. The Antwerp family ranked among the most celebrated harpsichord makers of the seventeenth century, and their instruments were luxury objects.
This is therefore not simply an arbitrary harpsichord inserted to illustrate the sense of hearing. Van Kessel appears to have wanted to depict a recognisable Antwerp prestige object. For collectors of Flemish painting, such a detail can add considerable interest. But does it also justify half a million euros?
On Paper, the Painting Was Already Worth the Same in 2003
The same painting came to auction at Tajan in Paris on 25 June 2003. Its estimate then was €450,000–550,000.[2] That makes the present valuation less arbitrary than it may initially appear. The painting has not suddenly been assigned a multiple of its former price. There is, however, an important problem: an estimate is not a sale result.
The extensive provenance is also largely the same as it was in 2003. According to the recorded history, the painting was commissioned around 1650 by Angibert Van den Berg and subsequently remained in the family until its sale in 2003. It is an impressive story.[2]
The Market Offers Little Support So Far for €600,000
Finding a meaningful comparison for such an unusual painting is difficult. A random flower study or animal painting by Van Kessel tells us relatively little. Far more relevant is Allegory of Sight, a view of Antwerp beyond, a collaboration between Jan van Kessel I and Victor Wolfvoet II sold by Christie’s in London in July 2018.
There too, Van Kessel used an interior filled with objects to represent one of the senses. The painting, executed on copper and measuring 62 by 82.6 centimetres, was also well represented in the scholarly literature. It was included in the Van Kessel catalogue by Klaus Ertz and Christa Nitze-Ertz.[3]
The estimate was £60,000–80,000. The work sold for £162,500 including buyer’s premium, approximately €184,000.[3] The Blois panel undoubtedly has arguments in favour of a higher price. It is larger. It combines all five senses in a single composition. The Ruckers harpsichord is unusual. But the difference remains substantial. There is little doubt that the present estimate is ambitious.
With Allori, the Opposite Happens
The Allori initially appears expensive as well. Portrait of Bianca Cappello is estimated at €200,000–300,000. The panel measures 86 by 68.5 centimetres and depicts a young woman against a dark curtain. Where Van Kessel tries to fit as much as possible into a single image, Allori does almost the opposite. The face is cool and controlled. The spectacular ruff, pearls, gold embroidery and red gown provide the movement and splendour.
In Florentine court portraiture of the second half of the sixteenth century, clothing was anything but incidental. Rank and wealth were quite literally worn. Alessandro Allori (1535–1607) grew up in the circle of his teacher and foster father Bronzino. At the auction, the sitter is identified as Bianca Cappello, wife of Francesco I de Medici. The painting is dated between 1560 and 1570. A famous sitter certainly makes a portrait more attractive.[1]
€200,000 Suddenly Looks Less Extravagant
In June 1995, the painting was sold at Tajan in Paris for 900,000 French francs, approximately €140,000.[4] More than thirty years later, a lower estimate of €200,000 no longer looks immediately excessive.
More relevant still is a sale from February this year. Christie’s New York offered a large Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Don Antonio de Medici by Allori. The estimate was $200,000–300,000, approximately €170,000–255,000. The portrait realised $381,000 including buyer’s premium, around €325,000.[5]
The sitter is different and so is the format. But the result does show that collectors are prepared to pay substantial sums for a convincing portrait by Allori. A second comparison is closer still. In 2007, Christie’s sold a Portrait of a lady, possibly Bianca Capello de Medici. The work had been included in a monograph on Allori and realised $133,000 including buyer’s premium.[6]
One Estimate Grows Stronger, the Other Weaker
That is ultimately what makes this small sale interesting. Anyone glancing quickly through the catalogue could easily regard both paintings as ambitiously priced Old Masters being offered outside London, Paris or New York.
Recent results for Allori show that the current estimate sits within the range of the market. The price is high, but understandable. With Van Kessel and Stalbemt, the situation is rather different. The painting is rich, unusual, and the Ruckers harpsichord is a genuinely interesting detail. But whether the market will follow the ambitious valuation remains an open question.
Notes and Sources
[1] VALOIR Pousse-Cornet, Blois, Treasures of the Loire Valley: Private Collection of Mr X, 22 November 2026; Alessandro Allori, Portrait of Bianca Cappello, estimate €200,000–300,000; Jan I van Kessel and Adriaen van Stalbemt, Allegory of the Five Senses, estimate €400,000–600,000.
[2] Tajan, Tableaux Anciens, Paris, 25 June 2003, lot 20, Jan van Kessel and Adriaen van Stalbemt, The Five Senses, estimate €450,000–550,000.
[3] Christie’s, Old Masters Day Sale, London, 6 July 2018, lot 123, Jan van Kessel I and Victor Wolfvoet II, Allegory of Sight, a view of Antwerp beyond, estimate £60,000–80,000, price realised £162,500 including buyer’s premium; K. Ertz and C. Nitze-Ertz, Jan van Kessel (Antwerp 1626–1679), 2013, no. 683.
[4] Le Journal des Arts, “Paris : sombres tableaux”, 1 July 1995; report of the Tajan sale of Allori’s Portrait de Bianca Capella for 900,000 French francs.
[5] Christie’s, New York, 4 February 2026, lot 24, Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a gentleman, possibly Don Antonio de’ Medici, 106.7 × 84.4 cm; estimate $200,000–300,000, price realised $381,000 including buyer’s premium.
[6] Christie’s, New York, 4 October 2007, lot 24, Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a lady, possibly Bianca Capello de’ Medici, 68.9 × 57.2 cm; price realised $133,000 including buyer’s premium.
